Good Modern Science Fiction

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getthatmarshmallow
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by getthatmarshmallow »

LadyGeek wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:39 pm The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Book #2 of the "Hyperion Cantos" series picks up where the first book left off. I'm still enjoying the writing style; the plot holds my interest. Things are taking shape and I have no idea what's going to happen next.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.

I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it. Currently, I'm on Book 15 in the Privateer Tales series by Jamie McFarlane. The series is getting a bit complacent, but it's keeping my interest. I ended up purchasing Books 12 - 17 and will finish out the series.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by rj342 »

getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am
LadyGeek wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:39 pm The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Book #2 of the "Hyperion Cantos" series picks up where the first book left off. I'm still enjoying the writing style; the plot holds my interest. Things are taking shape and I have no idea what's going to happen next.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.

I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
For some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by getthatmarshmallow »

rj342 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pm
getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am
LadyGeek wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:39 pm The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Book #2 of the "Hyperion Cantos" series picks up where the first book left off. I'm still enjoying the writing style; the plot holds my interest. Things are taking shape and I have no idea what's going to happen next.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.

I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
For some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
The first and second make a complete unit. The third and fourth do, too, and they're not bad, but they are weaker in the manner of many sequels. The series is essentially two duologies (?) in the same universe. The first book is still one of my favorite sci-fi books (I don't know when it came out by I read it in the late 90s in college.)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Kagord »

Mentioned before, fantasy, but if you like sci-fi, you'll probably like like these, 1st one is awesome:

Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (like RR Martin, may never finish the darn series, but hey, Brandon can always finish it as a backup)
Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson (more of a fun read, and you can watch his BYU lectures on Youtube)

I've read most of Simmons.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by rj342 »

getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:52 pm
rj342 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pm
getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am
LadyGeek wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:39 pm The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Book #2 of the "Hyperion Cantos" series picks up where the first book left off. I'm still enjoying the writing style; the plot holds my interest. Things are taking shape and I have no idea what's going to happen next.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.

I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
For some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
The first and second make a complete unit. The third and fourth do, too, and they're not bad, but they are weaker in the manner of many sequels. The series is essentially two duologies (?) in the same universe. The first book is still one of my favorite sci-fi books (I don't know when it came out by I read it in the late 90s in college.)
Thanks, good to know that #2 is a good stopping point.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by alex_686 »

LadyGeek wrote: Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:55 pm I'm reading this now and am about 70% through. While I would agree the writing is excellent, I don't think I will continue in this path.

The story is categorized as "adventure romance" and "speculative fiction", which is not for me. I was more interested in the dystopian setting than the character development. Worth a try, though.
I would try the other 2. They are pretty different then the first. Different characters, different perspective. I would argue that this is her first SF work, not Handmaiden's tale. Unless you count the Blind Assassins tale within a tale.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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Cloudy wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:50 pm Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is my favorite story. I've read it multiple times and always find new things to appreciate.
It's fascinating. I'm halfway through the second volume of four, and I'm still not quite sure what's going on.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by tooluser »

rj342 wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pm
getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am
LadyGeek wrote: Thu May 30, 2019 7:39 pm The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Book #2 of the "Hyperion Cantos" series picks up where the first book left off. I'm still enjoying the writing style; the plot holds my interest. Things are taking shape and I have no idea what's going to happen next.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.

I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
For some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
You could stop after the second volume, but all four are worth your time. The story is focused differently in volumes 3 and 4, but still entertaining and informative.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by FreeAtLast »

"The Long Sunset - An Academy Novel", by Jack McDevitt (Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2018)

On the front cover of this paperback edition, a partial quote from Stephen King is highlighted, referring to McDevitt, "The logical heir to Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke...." Look, I am sorry, but not even close! McDevitt has written a goodly number of entertaining sci-fi novels, but he does not fall into the pantheon of Asimov and Clarke and Heinlein and Bester and (Poul) Anderson and Pohl, etc. Not yet, anyways. One man's humble opinion; you may beg to differ.

I liked "Sunset" for these 3 reasons:

1) The first part of the book relates a intriguing interstellar mystery that will keep you guessing until the reveal.
2) McDevitt portrays a future Earth arguing vociferously over what I call "The Hawking Warning", that is, should our civilization search out other possible lifeforms in our galaxy? Or should we hide from these potential thems because they may be much more scientifically advanced than us and hostile to us at the same time?
3) What if we discover an alien civilization that is slightly behind our level of sophistication, but friendly and also involved in an existential crisis? Are we morally obligated to come to their aid?

Hey, for $8.99 at Barnes and Noble, you can't go wrong! :D
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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The Electric Church by Jeff Somers. Series continues.

The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson . Series continues.

Neuromancer by William Gibson. Series continues.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Series continues.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. Series continues. (Delving into fantasy now, i.e. the "new weird".)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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FreeAtLast wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:44 pm
2) McDevitt portrays a future Earth arguing vociferously over what I call "The Hawking Warning", that is, should our civilization search out other possible lifeforms in our galaxy? Or should we hide from these potential thems because they may be much more scientifically advanced than us and hostile to us at the same time?
With deference to Hawking, who was WAY smarter than I am, and as much as I loved Star Trek and all those old 50s movies, I don't think we have to worry much about that.
If we find extraterrestrial life I think the chance of us finding life that is more technologically advanced than us is quite low.
After all, WE are the ones with the technology sophisticated enough to travel to THEIR planet to find THEM, not the other way around. (If they HAVE found us, they are clearly smart enough to make sure we don't know it). If WE find THEM, they would much more likely be less technologically developed than us.
And given the way we treat other species on earth (or even other people) that we consider less sophisticated or "advanced" than we are, I think they would have a great deal to worry about being found.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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Foundation by Isaac Asimov & Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

I listened to Foundation via Audible then picked up Prelude on Kindle, and read while traveling.

This was probably the fourth time I had read the original Foundation, first as a teen, then rereading a few times later along with the other books in the original trilogy. The book is a collection of four stories written in the early 40s, early in his career, and published in Astounding, plus a intro chapter written later prior to the book being published in 1951. It is a great tale. Thousands of years in the future, the Galactic Empire is falling. Hari Seldon, the mathematician turned psychohistorian, establishes a project to to shorten the Fall so that civilization is able to recover in one thousand years vs ten thousand years of barbarism. While I always enjoyed the series, it's interesting reading it now after 50 years, with more experience reading a broad range of writers, and more outside of SF than within the genre. These were some of the earliest stories Asimov wrote. The characters, pretty much all male, advance the story through dialog. Not a lot of descriptive prose, very little to let you into the minds of the characters.

I was intrigued enough after my revisit to pick up his prequel, Prelude to Foundation. This was written in 1988, as his publisher was asking for more books to fill out the Foundation series. Hari Seldon is introduced as a young mathematician visiting the capital of the Galactic Empire to present an early paper on psychohistory. He is challenged by people within the Empire to prove his thesis and make it practical, and he visits different societies within the capital world. There are some surprises which I won't give away, but the book links to other stories in Asimov's "future history". There is a bit of social commentary in the book as well.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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"Imagined Life", by James Trefil and Michael Summers (Smithsonian Books 2019)

This book is not a science fiction novel, but it belongs in this thread anyways. Trefil is a physics PhD who has been a prolific writer of popular science books for 40 years. Summers is a PhD in planetary science and astronomy who has worked on several projects for NASA. They have joined together to rationally discuss the possibility of life on other planets that science fiction writers have hypothesized about for a century. Their starting point is the wonderful first discovery of an exoplanet (51 Persei b) orbiting a main sequence star in 1995. The two astronomers that made the discovery just received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics. At this time we are up to over 4000 more confirmed exoplanets in 25 years! Trefil/Summers have decided that it is time to scientifically discuss the types of exoplanets that could support life:

1) Ice Planets
2) Ice planets with subsurface oceans. We've got multiple examples of these in our own solar system with the moons of Jupiter and Saturn: Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Enceladus. My greatest hope is that if I live another 30 years and remain reasonably cognizant, I will be blessed to hear of the confirmation of (at least) microscopic life on one of these worlds.
3) "Goldilocks" worlds, like the Earth: We exist is a Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ. The great lesson of this chapter is that a planet in a CHZ does not necessarily harbor life AND that a planet does not have to be in a CHZ to harbor life.
4) Water World
5) A "Halo" world: This is an exoplanet that is tidally locked in its revolution around its star, creating a "terminator zone". The authors detail absolutely extraordinary possibilities for life-potential environments in a planet of this type.
6) Rogue planets: Planets traveling through space, not in orbit around any star. What, no continuous bath of life-giving electromagnetic radiation, you object?! Read the chapter and you will be converted.
7) Super earths: large, rocky planets with a heavier gravity than Earth.

In the "Goldilocks" chapter, they also discuss their ideas about the Fermi Paradox. Near the end of the book, they kick around ideas concerning the possibility of non-carbon chemistry based life and even life based upon superconducting materials. "Imagined Life" is greatly stimulating and a huge amount of fun and probably should be read by every serious Sci-Fi fan. :D
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am ...I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
Thank you for the suggestion, as I just downloaded the Trilogy to my Kindle. I fully agree, that is a very distinction style. All three books in this series won a Hugo award and I can see why. I can't put it down and want to keep reading.

I'm all for female authors with strong female characters. Research shows she was influenced by Ursula K. LeGuin which I can see in her writing style.

FYI - The series is a bit pricey and there's no discount for purchasing the bundle.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by brookwright »

TSR wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:24 pm I didn't see anyone post this upthread, but my book club just read Exhalation by Ted Chiang, and that was universally loved. Extremely thought-provoking, beautiful, and oddly optimistic.
+1

I thought his first book of short stories was great, and this was nearly as good. Just made the New York Time's list of the 10 Best Books of 2019.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by getthatmarshmallow »

LadyGeek wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 10:07 pm
getthatmarshmallow wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am ...I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
Thank you for the suggestion, as I just downloaded the Trilogy to my Kindle. I fully agree, that is a very distinction style. All three books in this series won a Hugo award and I can see why. I can't put it down and want to keep reading.

I'm all for female authors with strong female characters. Research shows she was influenced by Ursula K. LeGuin which I can see in her writing style.

FYI - The series is a bit pricey and there's no discount for purchasing the bundle.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! (I read it using the library so I can't speak to the lack of bundling.)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by JaceSpade »

Gus Flory's new book The Forgotten Outpost is very good. It's about a soldier who gets caught up in a conspiracy on Saturn's moon of Titan.

The first book of Flory's space opera trilogy Galaxy of Heroes is free on Kindle.

I'm a big fan. :beer
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Cycle »

DanMahowny wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pm
themesrob wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:48 pm Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was tremendous.
Yes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
I inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Lordosis »

Wow this thread is amazing! I have so many new books to add to my growing list. And more importantly I have put my list in a more appropriate order based on the reviews here. Now I just need to find more time :P

I Really love the old sci fi of the 40s-60- but I have been looking for modern equivalents.

I am on book 6 of the expanse right now. I really like the series.

I ran across Alistair Reynolds by accident and fell in love. I have read everything in the revelation space universe and many of his others but still a few to go. I am halfway through Revenger right now. I specifically liked Pushing Ice but Century Rain, House of suns and Terminal world were great too.

I really like Scalzi as well. Redshirts was funny and good. Old mans war series was great. He did a good job with the remake of Little Fuzzy with his Fuzzy Nation.
I just read Lock In and Head On in January and it is kinda freaky that we are now in the middle of a viral pandemic. It would be cool to have a robot body though 8-)

Thank you for all that contributed!
Keep Reading!!!


Short stories are a whole new topic but I think my favorite is Asimov's The last Question.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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themesrob wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 9:59 am I think I recommended Dark Matter by Blake Crouch earlier in this thread, but I'll add a plug for his more recent book, Recursion. The guy has a tremendous skill for coming up with one-off concepts.
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch. I agree with the reviews - it's very engrossing and I can't put it down.

For $11, I was hoping the book would be longer - I'm going through it too fast. However, it's good enough that the price doesn't bug me all that much.

Recursion will be next.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Alex Frakt »

If you are looking for something light and fun, I highly recommend the Union Station series by E.M. Foner. Please don't let the dumb cover art dissuade you. They are "free" if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I had let mine lapse, but just renewed on a 3-month for $9.99 deal.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by tadamsmar »

Terry Bisson's short story "They are made out of meat" has been dramatized in a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by alex_686 »

I have been enjoying the Murbot novellas. Not exactly a recommendation and I wouldn’t exactly call them good, but they are a nice mindless read.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by jibantik »

Cycle wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:14 pm
DanMahowny wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pm
themesrob wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:48 pm Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was tremendous.
Yes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
I inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.
LOL, yes, great. I HIGHLY enjoyed Replay and Dark Matter, both of I which I got recommendations for from here. I am looking for books like these.

I liked The First Fifteen lives of Dr. Harry August as well, but not as much as Replay and Dark Matter.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by TheEternalVortex »

Cycle wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:14 pm
DanMahowny wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pm
themesrob wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:48 pm Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was tremendous.
Yes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
I inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.
If you like that one I recommend Everyone by Charles Soule. Crouch’s Recursion is also basically like a better version of Dark Matter.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by climber2020 »

I just finished A Song For a New Day by Sarah Pinsker. Entertaining, well written book that is very relevant to current events. It’s one of this year’s Nebula finalists.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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Alex Frakt wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:03 am If you are looking for something light and fun, I highly recommend the Union Station series by E.M. Foner. Please don't let the dumb cover art dissuade you. They are "free" if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I had let mine lapse, but just renewed on a 3-month for $9.99 deal.
I just downloaded the first book via a new Kindle Unlimited subscription. The subscription is now 2 months free. So, 3-months for $9.99. I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The first book, Date Night on Union Station, is a fun read. Some of the reviews have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not as good, but close enough. I would agree.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Alex Frakt »

LadyGeek wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 12:57 pm ...I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The first book, Date Night on Union Station, is a fun read. Some of the reviews have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not as good, but close enough. I would agree.
Kindle Unlimited should be called Kindle Limited. It's mostly self-published stuff. I still think it's worth it at a marginal cost of $0 for a new book, but you do have to go into it with different expectations. There's certainly a lot of military sci-fi if that's your thing. One genre I like are the autobiographies from people with interesting jobs like tug boat captain or saturation diver. There are quite a few classics as well. At one point all of Vonnegut was included.

I think I have an idea for a new thread :-)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by FreeAtLast »

Once upon a time, there existed a Golden Age of Science Fiction where great authors published short stories and novellas in pulp fanzines such as Galaxy, IF, Orbit, Analog, and Astounding Stories. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, many of these classic tales are available to you for free. Go to manybooks.net and register with a email address and password. Then go to View Profile and click on Science Fiction. I then suggest you arrange all of the available titles by Author, instead of Popularity.

I admit the huge selection is a mixed bag - a bunch of mediocre works are offered and you will skip through those pretty quickly. Many of the great authors' works are still under copyright, but - surprise, surprise! - a decent number of them are not. For example, go to page 15 and look up Philip K. Dick. Not only is his best short story (IMHO) "Second Variety" posted, but so are a bunch of other PKD short stories that I had never seen before. You will also find Issac Asimov, Poul Anderson, James Blish, Harry Harrison, Damon Knight, Henry Kuttner, and Keith Laumer, to name a few (I started with "A" and have just begun to peruse the "L's"). The other bonus to "manybooks" is that you are able to view the absolutely wonderful cover art of the fanzines I noted above. I would love to obtain some of these covers in poster size!
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Iorek »

heartwood wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 6:49 am Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for best novel back in the '90s. Essentially a story set in a future Britain with time travel and in medieval Britain in plague times.
Well crafted, but overwritten in parts, especially early on over language communications. I almost stopped reading at one point but am glad I kept at it.
She has you positing on the horrors of the Black Death, but also the risk of a pandemic today. Just a hundred years ago 50 -100 million died of flu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
I guess I haven’t opened this thread in a while because I came across this comment and had to check the date.

Anyway I second Connie Willis in general and this book in particular as great (to say nothing of the dog is also very good).

The murderbot novellas are very good (and short so you can easily decide if you like them) and the author just released a full length novel.

I’d also encourage people to sign up for Tor’s mailing list— they give out free e-books regularly and they are often very good books (often they will give out earlier books in a series to stoke interest in a new book in that series or by that author).
Last edited by Iorek on Mon May 11, 2020 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by MrBobcat »

Iorek wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:45 am
The murderbot novellas are very good (and short so you can easily decide if you like them) and the author just released a full length novel.
I loved the murderbot novellas and am very happy to hear about a new novel.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by legio XX »

MrBobcat wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 8:05 am
Iorek wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:45 am
The murderbot novellas are very good (and short so you can easily decide if you like them) and the author just released a full length novel.
I loved the murderbot novellas and am very happy to hear about a new novel.
Martha Wells, Network Effect. Don't believe I actually just paid for an e-book for the second time in my life, but I wanted some new reading. Murderbot is still Murderbot so I got my plastic's worth.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by LadyGeek »

LadyGeek wrote: Tue May 05, 2020 12:57 pm
Alex Frakt wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:03 am If you are looking for something light and fun, I highly recommend the Union Station series by E.M. Foner. Please don't let the dumb cover art dissuade you. They are "free" if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I had let mine lapse, but just renewed on a 3-month for $9.99 deal.
I just downloaded the first book via a new Kindle Unlimited subscription. The subscription is now 2 months free. So, 3-months for $9.99. I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The first book, Date Night on Union Station, is a fun read. Some of the reviews have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not as good, but close enough. I would agree.
I'm up to book 4, Spy Night on Union Station. The series is starting to get predictable and I've started looking for something different that's available on Kindle Unlimited.

The murderbot series mentioned in the previous posts look interesting, but I'll need to pay for them. Maybe later.

I recommend the Privateer Tales, by Jamie McFarlane. All 18 books are available free with Kindle Unlimited. 18 books? Hang on, I've only read 17. Book 18 was published in January. I'll start that now.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by hohum »

skeptical wrote: Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:28 pm Some of my non-traditional favorites, especially the first three.

Fiasco, Stanislaw Lem
Semiosis, Sue Burke
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

His Master’s Voice, Stanislaw Lem
Dragon’s Egg, Robert Forward
+1 For Fiasco ... definitely one of the books I still think about from time to time, and I read it more than ten years ago.

Similar books that have stuck with me ...

Roadside Picnic -- the Strugatsky brothers
The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K. Dick (the novel, NOT the Amazon series that surgically removed everything that might cause the viewer to think, ponder, question etc.)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Dave55 »

"The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells. These 4 novellas are about an A.I. (Half robot half human construct) that is designed to provide security for humans. However the Bot only wants to watch entertainment videos. The first book in the series is "All Systems Red". The 2nd book is "Artificial Condition". I am on the 3rd book, "Rogue Protocol". These books are fabulous. Funny, exciting, adventurous, page turner with crisp writing.

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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by rotLobster »

books.. these i have read through the years. i went back and looked at nebula award winners to refresh my memory

earthblood by Keith Laumer,Rosel George Brown
lord of light by zelazny
Cugel's Saga by jack vance
humanoids jack williamson
night walk, by bob shaw
blood music by greg bear
norstralia by Cordwainer Smith
ringworld by larry niven
the forever war by haldemon
timescape by benford
startide rising by brin
necromancer by gibson
enders game by orson scot card
the postman by brin
consider phlebas by ian m banks
all the red rising series by pierce brown
footfall by niven and pournelle

most of these authors have other highly recommended books.

if you are into fantasy, joe abercrombie is very good, on a par with rr martin.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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LadyGeek wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 9:21 pm I'm up to book 4, Spy Night on Union Station. The series is starting to get predictable and I've started looking for something different that's available on Kindle Unlimited.

The murderbot series mentioned in the previous posts look interesting, but I'll need to pay for them. Maybe later.

I recommend the Privateer Tales, by Jamie McFarlane. All 18 books are available free with Kindle Unlimited. 18 books? Hang on, I've only read 17. Book 18 was published in January. I'll start that now.
I couldn't find anything to read in Kindle Unlimited, so I purchased all 5 books in The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells. I'm nearly done Book 1, All Systems Red. I agree with Dave55 and others. This book is a fun read. It's creative and keeps my interest.

The main complaint is that the publisher set the prices too high. I would agree, but I really like this book.

I see a 6th book is out - Fugitive Telemetry.

I'm thinking to cancel my Kindle Unlimited subscription when the 2nd free month runs out.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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^^^ I'm glad I purchased all 5 books, as I went through them quickly. My mistake - the 6th book, Fugitive Telemetry, won't be out until April 27, 2021.

As for Kindle Unlimited, the 2 month subscription ends in a little over a week. I still couldn't find anything to read and went to cancel the subscription. Amazon countered with a free 1 month subscription extension. I took the offer, but still couldn't find anything worthwhile to read. Unless I trip across something, I'll cancel it next month.

My only consolation is that I'm racking up $1.50 digital download credits when I accept delayed Amazon Prime deliveries. I don't need my stuff right away, so Amazon is offering to pay me $1.50 if I can wait until the following week. Sure. (The incentive used to be $1.00, but has recently increased to $1.50.)

Mentioned in this thread and Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI (by quantAndHold), I downloaded Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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FreeAtLast wrote: Sun May 10, 2020 2:11 pm Once upon a time, there existed a Golden Age of Science Fiction where great authors published short stories and novellas in pulp fanzines such as Galaxy, IF, Orbit, Analog, and Astounding Stories. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, many of these classic tales are available to you for free. Go to manybooks.net and register with a email address and password. Then go to View Profile and click on Science Fiction. I then suggest you arrange all of the available titles by Author, instead of Popularity.
Thank you for this... I think !! :P A great collection of classic SF&F. I've already downloaded a couple of obscure Robert E. Howard novellas that I haven't read (which is rare for me. I enjoyed his stuff so much as a kid that as a teenager I drove to his Texas hometown and his grave from Canada).
FreeAtLast wrote: Sun May 10, 2020 2:11 pm The other bonus to "manybooks" is that you are able to view the absolutely wonderful cover art of the fanzines I noted above. I would love to obtain some of these covers in poster size!
+1 Some of the "Weird Tales" covers are fantastic.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by FreeAtLast »

Koogie -

I am very pleased that my recommendation worked out for you. As an addendum, I wish to point out that if you proceed to the "Non-Fiction" genre (which has over 600 titles), you will discover even more old SF short stories and novellas.....which, for some reason, the vast majority are not posted in the "Science Fiction" genre.

Free
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

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LadyGeek wrote: Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:17 pm ...As for Kindle Unlimited, the 2 month subscription ends in a little over a week. I still couldn't find anything to read and went to cancel the subscription. Amazon countered with a free 1 month subscription extension. I took the offer, but still couldn't find anything worthwhile to read. Unless I trip across something, I'll cancel it next month.

...Mentioned in this thread and Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI (by quantAndHold), I downloaded Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
I just finished Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. This is my idea of a "fun" read. If you know video games from the 1980's this book is for you. It was a trip down memory lane from a gamer's perspective.

As for Amazon Unlimited, I still couldn't find anything to read and canceled the subscription. The subscription continues through the end of my extra month. A google search shows that the Unlimited subscription targets books under $2.99. So, the first book in the series is cheap and available, the remaining books are full price. It's the ultimate definition of a loss-leader.

I was in the mood for space opera. Linesman, by S. K. Dunstall. Book 1 of 3 in the Linesman series. I can't just read one book in a series, so I purchased all three. There's no bulk discount, but it will save me the downloads. So far, I like it. (Not available in Kindle Unlimited.)
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by heartwood »

I had a similar experience with Kindle Unlimited and dropped it after the trial period plus extra month. But during that time I found a number of books that are not available to me through my libraries as e-books.

To stay within the theme of the thread, one was We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. A light read about a guy dying and waking up later to find he's been upload into a computer and is to be the AI on a spaceship, or be switched off. There are 3 books in the Bobiverse series.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by tuningfork »

legio XX wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 9:39 am
MrBobcat wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 8:05 am
Iorek wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:45 am
The murderbot novellas are very good (and short so you can easily decide if you like them) and the author just released a full length novel.
I loved the murderbot novellas and am very happy to hear about a new novel.
Martha Wells, Network Effect. Don't believe I actually just paid for an e-book for the second time in my life, but I wanted some new reading. Murderbot is still Murderbot so I got my plastic's worth.
Me too. I just forked over full price for the Kindle edition of Network Effect. I read mostly free e-books in the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, Tor giveways, etc. It's extremely rare for me to pay for an e-book, and almost never more than a few dollars. But the four novellas in the Murderbot Diaries that were Tor freebies a few months ago were so good I just had to buy her new novel.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by xb7 »

I just finished a fairly recent sci fi book that I quite liked,

"The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal

Good writing, sucked me right in and kept me happily reading to the end (and there's a sequel coming soon I think).

My wife is reading it now, and equally enjoying it, which is certainly not always the case for us.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by rockstar »

LadyGeek wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:08 pm
themesrob wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 9:59 am I think I recommended Dark Matter by Blake Crouch earlier in this thread, but I'll add a plug for his more recent book, Recursion. The guy has a tremendous skill for coming up with one-off concepts.
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch. I agree with the reviews - it's very engrossing and I can't put it down.

For $11, I was hoping the book would be longer - I'm going through it too fast. However, it's good enough that the price doesn't bug me all that much.

Recursion will be next.
I was recommended Dark Matter. It's on my list to read next month. I heard the author isn't good with endings, but I'm going to read it since it comes up a lot in book club.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by LadyGeek »

For the record, I had intended to read Recursion, but decided not to. I didn't want a repeat of the same theme and went in a different direction.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by LadyGeek »

LadyGeek wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:44 pm ...I was in the mood for space opera. Linesman, by S. K. Dunstall. Book 1 of 3 in the Linesman series. I can't just read one book in a series, so I purchased all three. There's no bulk discount, but it will save me the downloads. So far, I like it. (Not available in Kindle Unlimited.)
I finished the series and was not disappointed.

The Swarm, by B. V. Larson. This is military sci-fi, Book 1 of 12 in the Star Force Series. Reviews suggested this is either a "like it" or "hate it" book. I liked it, as the plot is very creative. The dialogue can be trite at times, but the story just builds on you and I couldn't stop reading.

Hopefully, the trend continues as I already own all but 1 book of the series. It's from my late husband's Amazon kindle account, which is shared with me. We had similar interests (sci-fi), but I never got around to reading all the books he purchased. I have some catching up to do.

I also looked at Artemis, by Andy Weir, but it got a lot of bad reviews and I decided to skip it.
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by Sandi_k »

LadyGeek wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:59 pm
I also looked at Artemis, by Andy Weir, but it got a lot of bad reviews and I decided to skip it.
It's OK, but it's no "Martian".

If you like Space Opera, have you read the Vorkosigan saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold? Or the Honor Harrington series, by David Weber?
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Re: Good Modern Science Fiction

Post by LadyGeek »

Yes to both. I didn't read the entire Honor Harrington series, as it seemed to be a bit long in the tooth after 10+ novels. Both were very enjoyable.
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